changing /home directory to another partition

[Keyser]

i just installed knoppix to my hd. my partitions look like this:

/dev/hda5/ ext3
/dev/hda6/ swap
/dev/hda7/ ext3

my intention was for hda7 to be my /home directory, as i was told it is good to have it seperate from the main linux partition. but knoppix automatically made my home folder in hda5.

how do i go about changing this?

[Rumo]

First boot with your knoppix-CD, because I don't now how Linux reacts if you move /home while it is running.

Then mount your root-Partition (cd into it) and move /home somewhere else (e.g. /home_save). Now type 'mkdir home', 'mount /dev/hda7 home' and move your directorys from /home_save to /home.

The last step is to edit /etc/fstab and add the following line:

/dev/hda7 /home ext3 defaults 1 2


There are probably easier ways, but I think that this should work.

[McGyver]

Hi Folks,

just for confirmation:
it is working fine this way also when you booted from hdd and logged on with root because root home is usually not under /home but under /root.

cu
McGyver

[Moto_Guzzix]

I just went through this myself and I think I found an easier way..I went to the KNOPPIX menu, picked Configure, and chose the option to create a persistent home directory. It prompted me about whether I wanted to use the entire partition I directed it to (to which I said yes - that's what I created it for), it formatted the partition, then it told me it transferred my home directory to that partition. Done.

Is it really that easy? Or am I missing something?

[McGyver]

that easy with the assumption that there is not already data on that partition! because a format is a one way ticket (o:

cu
Oliver

[jhellen]

With other distros I have managed to mount my new partitions under /mnt/tmp5 /mnt/tmp6 etc and did a 'cp -r /home /mnt/tmp5'
then I could just edit my fstab like this
/dev/hda5 /home ext3 defaults 1 2

The only problem here was that knoppix seems to make its own fstab every now and then. I'm using Knoppix 3.7 and I haven't yet been able to edit my fstab. Tried to make a decent mountpoint for my usb-storage devices but they disappeared and now they are mounted under /mnt/sda1 etc.

Konqueror also gets stuck every time I click the /mnt/. It's just like it couldn't find anything under /mnt/

This is my fstab
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy vfat defaults,user,noauto,showexec,umask=022 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/auto/cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto 0 0
dev/dvd /dvd iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdaudio /cdaudio iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto 0 0

# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usb_stick vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda2 none swap defaults 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda7 /mnt/hda7 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0

... and I would like to have it like this:

/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda2 none swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda6 /tmp ext3 defaults 0 0
/dev/hda7 /A ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0

/dev/fd0 /floppy vfat defaults,user,noauto,showexec,umask=022 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usb_stick vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
#THESE WOULD BE GREAT TO HAVE
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb_stick2 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb_drive vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/sdd1 /mnt/mp3_player vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/cflash_mdrive vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/sd_mmc vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /mnt/mstick vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/sdd1 /mnt/smedia vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0

I would appreciate some help on this matter :P

[mr_ed]

Still having these problems? Do you get error messages when you edit /etc/fstab?

-- Ed

[doclalor]

Konqueror also gets stuck every time I click the /mnt/. It's just like it couldn't find anything under /mnt/

I have had the same problem. I think this is related, too: writing to a mostly-empty 170 GB hda4 partition from a Windows machine using Samba, I get a "disk full" message! As I'm transferring files, I check the used 1-MB blocks on the partitions using #df -m ... and AS I'M transferring files to HDA4, the number of 1-MB blocks used ON HDA1 increases!!! Either #df is not reporting correctly, or /mnt/hda4 is really mapped to hda1!

Here are the relevant lines from my fstab at present:

/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda2 none swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 /mnt/hda3 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/hda4 /mnt/hda4 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0

The drive is a 200 GB Western Digital.

[radnor]

Still having these problems? Do you get error messages when you edit /etc/fstab?

-- Ed

Mr. Ed,

I can get around the editing problem of the FSTAB file. My problem is ... when I reboot, knoppix REBUILDS the file removing my changes. This is a PIA!

Radnor

[numb]

I am also attempting to move my home directory to a different partition. I'm able to successfully fix fstab. But, the original home directory won't die. I delete and it regenerates the home directory on the next boot. So, I'm left with two home directories with identiical files and thus the same problem. If I delete a user's folder from the original home directory, then it deletes from the new home directory also (on a seperate partition). Is there a knoppix configuration I've missed?